Spirit Joy

Last night in class Spirit was a complete and total rock star, leading me to the conclusion that (drum roll, please) she does not have an agility problem or a teeter problem, she truly has a RING problem. I know, that's been pretty clear all along, but after watching how amazing she was last night, and how much fun she was having, I knew for certain that this is just ring stress. SOOOOOOOO, I decided to do a UKI trial. The next one is in December, and the advantage is that I can do all the runs as NFC (not for competition) and therefore bring a toy into the ring and basically train whatever I want during my allotted time. Our trainer thought it was a great idea, and I'm really hopeful that this will help. I'm going to use her lotus ball tug, but just not load it with treats. Hopefully she'll go for it :pop

She's also entered in an AKC trial this weekend. I'm withdrawing her from Standard. So we'll do FAST and JWW on Friday, and just JWW on Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully she'll have fun with that too. We are driving back and forth each day (an hour and a half each way - ugh) but I think she also prefers being home each evening. Paws crossed for a good experience and fun in the ring. Here's the link to our training sessions last night - they were tons of fun!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cgup7n915rm1ayk/MAH00392.MP4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iuvtsbn8wr25fye/MAH00400.MP4?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f667l6iijxgzhdu/MAH00401.MP4?dl=0
 
So today at the trial - SHE RAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since she's in Excellent Jumpers, it was an NQ, but I don't care about that at all. She had fun, ran the whole course, and left with a smile on her face (probably because of the bonus tunnel that she threw in :winkgrin:)

It was a much trickier course than it looked like on the map. Here's a link to the map:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/tnkap8josharhoh/file (4).jpeg?dl=0

Notice that jump 1 is actually taken in the direction of the wall, NOT jump 2. So Spirit did fine on jump 1, 2, 3. Refused the weaves the first time but did them hesitantly the 2nd time (I think the problem was that the judge was standing less than 5 feet from the weaves, and Spirit kept glancing over at her). Then she did great all the way through jump 11, for some reason ran past jump 12. Did jump 13, 14, 15 - and then took the off course bonus tunnel. Ah well, at least she was having fun :). I just laughed and kept going, and she did the rest of the course.

It was just so amazing to run a course with her again, and to see her laughing and enjoying herself. I decided to quit while we were ahead and not do Standard. So the plan for tomorrow is JWW only. If she does amazing tomorrow and again on Sunday, we might try Standard on Sunday. We'll see. Right now I just want to make sure she's happy and confident and having good experiences in the ring :)

We do have video so I'll post that once the video is sent to me.
 
Today was a little trickier - here's my facebook post.

Not quite as successful a day today, but I tried out some more difficult handling due to several tunnel 'traps' (thank you for the tips, Shari, it ALMOST worked after jump 4- pulled her off the left side of the tunnel, but then I think I rotated too early and she took the right side instead of turning away toward the jump). Then I tried a front cross before the weaves which I think was 1.late and 2. In the wrong spot, so Spirit and I both ended up stopping and looking at each other. So I just yelled 'weave' and ran off, hoping she would follow me (I didn't care whether she took the weaves, I just wanted her to start running again, and she did). The last half of the course was beautiful
1f642.png
:). I'm looking forward to seeing the video so I can see what actually did happen and not be relying on my memory of it while running
1f642.png
:)

And here's the course map:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xrvakx3a5zn2jp3/JWW 11-5-2016.jpg?dl=0

She definitely did not like the tunnel start with me beside her. Right now she prefers to start with a lead out and recall over the first jump, which I can't do with a tunnel :-(
 
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